Biography

I teach Management of Projects to engineering students. I actively research human resources management and development, with a focus on training and development, labour productivity and performance, knowledge management and organisational learning. I also undertake research on design management and sustainable development. I am passionate about students' personal development planning. I co-authored "Constructing Futures: Industry Leaders and Futures Thinking in Construction" with Professor Rachel Cooper (Lancaster University). I have published over 50 refereed journal and conference articles.

Externally, I am Editor of Construction Management and Economics, the leading international refereed journal that publishes original research concerning the management and economics of building and civil engineering. I have been joint coordinator (with Professor Raisanen from Chalmers University) of CIB TG 78 on "Informality and emergence in construction workplaces", a Member of the Research and Innovation Panel of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), Secretary of the Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM), a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a member of the European Institute of Construction Labour Research (CLR) Great Britain. I was formerly a member of the North East Chamber of Commerce Skills Working Group, the EPSRC Manufacturing Futures Network (Ref: EP/D059046/1), and the EPSRC Ideas Factory Programme on Productivity. I previously completed, as co-principal investigator an EPSRC project entitled Understanding and assessing the concept of knowledge leakage (Ref: EP/D505631/1), and have supervised an EPSRC/North East Chamber of Commerce funded PhD CASE student examining skills capacity issues in the Tyne and Wear region (Ref: EP/C537793/1).

Hobby-wise, I enjoy the theatre, live music and indulging in gastronomical delights.

PhD Supervison

1. Airports Environmental Investment Toolkit (Student: Vivian Liang)

The aim of this EPSRC project (Ref: EP/H004505/1) is to examine how airport operators make decisions to invest in sustainable technologies.

The project examine the nature of competitiveness strategies in advanced manufacturing in the UK, and how this is being shaped by public policy.

3. Product-service models in construction (Student: William Robinson)

This project, funded through the EPSRC CASE Award and is part-sponsored by Laing O'Rourke, investigates the prospects of product-service thinking to enhance the performance of mechanical and electrical processes (MEP).